Wyoming Libraries Get Endowment Fund

The Wyoming State House of Representatives voted 60–0 March 7 to pass the Public Library Endowment Challenge Program. The bill, S.F. 29, which passed the state senate February 21, establishes a $9.1-million endowment for the state’s 23 public library systems. Prior to approval, the Senate Appropriations Committee decreased the figure down from its original $25.3 million, but after two years of unsuccessful attempts to pass the legislation, many library supporters see the establishment of the endowment as the true victory.

“Libraries are the heart and soul of Wyoming’s small communities,” Rep. George Bagby (D-Rawlins) told the Billings Gazette March 4. “Let’s keep that heart beating.”

The endowment establishes three tiers designed to ensure that all county library foundations statewide will benefit. The county library foundations in the poorest areas would receive a $3 match for every $1 privately raised; library foundations in more affluent counties would receive a $2–$1 match, and library foundations in the wealthiest counties a $1–$1 match, according to a March 7 press release from Wyoming Library Association. Matching funds of up to $295,652 are available. Once the libraries receive the funds, they are free to use them in any way they see fit.

“This endowment is necessary for the future of Wyoming’s libraries’ infrastructure, and it looks like we’ve come a long way this session to establish that future,” Sen. Hank Coe (R-Park), a cosponsor of the bill, stated.

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Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4
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RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
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Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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